[JMACK45]

I am thinking about my device options and got a really good deal on a 16 gb Ipod Touch, but I haven't even opened it yet because I am not sure I want to go that route. I have about 100gbs of music, mostly 320kps on my computer that I usually sync up to my iphone or ipad, but I've been thinking about getting something to just be my "music" device and not something that I also listen to music on if that makes sense...and who doesn't need another toy. 
 
With the 16gb device I started thinking about relying more on streaming...I mostly listen at home or if I'm going to be out I could plan ahead and sync appropriately...so I am wondering if I should look into streaming more vs having a large capacity device like Ipod or other, obviously larger capacity is more expensive. But I'm thinking if I can stream quality audio from my own collection or a high service (google, spotify, Beats, were the main ones I was considering) would that be a good option. All my music is 320kps which most streaming services claim to be able to do...I can stream on the Touch and still sync 16gb at a time if I plan to do some listening. So that's my logic. At the other end of the spectrum is my thought is to get a higher capacity Ipod classic or even look into other audio devices and get all my music on there...
 
Has anyone made the switch to primarily streaming and loved or regretted it?
 
What kind of sound quality change are we talking about?
 
Is 16gb enough, I have that total on my devices now and share it with apps/email/etc and don't seem to have too much of an issue with it?
 
Is having a separate device for music only just going to be a hassle vs. one where I can multitask, apps, surf web on at same time?
 
Any other thoughts or suggestions regarding my dilemma? 
 
Thanks.

 

[julian67]

For a few months I tried using my Galaxy Note phone as my main personal/on the go music player, with no music on the device (just a few audiobooks, podcasts and so on). I have a 3G plan with enough capacity that I can use it as I like. The music is on my home server, all flac ripped from CD. The server runs MPD (Music Player Daemon) so can output flac, wav, ogg, , wavpack or mp3. My router runs an IPSec VPN server and I run an VPN client on my Note. Audio quality is not an issue but unfortunately inconsistent 3G service is. On a good day I can stream wav to my phone and it's great. More often I have to switch to the ogg output to avoid dropouts. Sometimes even lossy streams drop out. In some places there is never a decent signal, in others it's inconsistent. In the end I have returned to using my Rockboxed Sansa Fuze+ , added a 128GB microSD card and now I just enjoy the music again. Some times I use my old iRiver H140 (Rockboxed with 128GB SSD) with line out to FiiO portable amp but the Fuze+ is small enough not to be annoying and the H140+amp combo is not.

For streaming high quality audio the hardware is ready and of good quality but relying on intrinsically unreliable networks doesn't work well. They get affected by congestion, atmospherics and maintenance. Also just a clerical error or billing dispute or similar can get you an endless supply of silence where you expected music.

I would maybe use a commercial streaming service for casual listening/discovery but for my own music collection nothing beats having it on physical media on a dedicated player owned and controlled by me.

 

[spatzi]

I have the same problem. Bought an itouch cheap for $169, contemplated using it for spotify only, ended up returning it, but mainly because it's 2 year old technology and a new one may come out soon.

I would never rely on streaming spotify for portable use. I would download the albums to the device. This is the feature that does it for me, that makes it worth paying $10 a month. It is so much easier to download albums direct to the device from Spotify and not having to go in and out of my hard drive collection and move albums over to an sd card. I am so tired of constantly hooking up devices via usb to my pc to get new tracks. Or juggling sd cards, or buying 8 sd cards to contain my hard drive collection, which in the end is rarely better quality than what spotify streams anyway. (320 ogg). So, 75% of my hard drive music collection (700 gigs) is now redundant because of Spotify. What I can't get on spotify fits on one usb stick, which I use with fiio x5.

The other problem is my hard drive collection gives me no access to new music. I have had the same collection for over thirty years. It's all been painstakingly collected and stored, but often I look at it and can't find anything I want to listen to because I've heard it all so many times before. Spotify has opened up many paths to new music I would never have heard otherwise. What has made music fun for me again is having access to this vast collection of NEW music. I'd love to be able to quickly download these albums to my portable before I go out, without looking anything up to my PC. And if I want, I have access to 75% of my old tired and familiar collection as well.

I have fiio x5, sansa clip, Sony a17. Fiio is great SQ but crap battery and too big to be portable. Sansa is very portable but crap battery and sq. Sony is in between: good sq, great battery. None of them gives me the last piece of the puzzle: access to spotify, still portable, great battery, micro SD. The closest I have seen is Sony zx1 but even that has only 128 gigs Internal memory. I considered phones but they have terrible battery and are not made for audio.

Why someone hasn't developed a Spotify streaming/downloadable player for $100 is beyond me.

Everyone is now stuck between hoarding their own collection, as in "ownership" and dealing with the fact that we're all going to start renting music soon. It's a strange feeling realizing that all the work you put into years of collecting and organizing music on your hard drive was for nothing. It's scary. Once the missing gaps are filled in by Spotify or Tidal, or qubuz, there's absolutely no reason for me to have my own collection on a hard drive, except for the music I create myself or those rarities that are just never going to show up anywhere. High quality streaming is here, so no one can say I need my portable for my high resolution recordings.

For now i'm stuck between giving up the old man idea of 'owning' my music, trying to keep my 'prized' collection on USB sticks and sd cards (1999 mentality and habit) and slowly moving over to the new world: the 2015 streaming side where I don't own anything, I just rent it. the payoff is I have access to almost everything ever recorded, and spend the next 25 years listening to nothing but new music and still not get through it all. It's overwhelming. I used to think my 700 GB collection was massive. It's nothing.

I did comparisons between a stream from Spotify playing through my iPad over headphones and the same file played on my Fiio X5. They sound identical! I couldn't believe it. I expected a fairly major difference, but there was none. And that's only 320 ogg off spotify. Plenty for me. It's mainly the convenience of never having to deal with SD card transfers, pc hookups and being stuck with my too familiar 700 GB collection.

 

[JMACK45]

Thanks for both replies so far! Spatzi, you hit on a bunch of things I have been thinking about, everything from iPod Touch being "old" already, to the dilemma of giving up all the music I've collected over the years, although I'm no where near your massive collection.

I might look in to the spotify premium service (or other if some have recommendations...I'm sure there are service comparisons on head-if). The idea of downloading from the subscription service to the device vs streaming was one I hadn't really thought much about...but makes a lot of sense.

 

[maeschba]

The closest I have seen is Sony zx1 but even that has only 128 gigs Internal memory. I considered phones but they have terrible battery and are not made for audio.

 
The Sony NWZ-F886 has even less internal memory but I don't think that is necessary for Spotify on the go. I have one, like it very much as DAP and portable phone free alrounder but didn't use Spotify on it yet. The only case I use a streaming service is to check out and compare interpretations if music I'm going to play - and that, I do on an IPad. With the Sony NWZ-F886 I think you'd have an excellent portable solution.